


Seven Calls

by Fanforthefics (StormDancer)



Series: Hockey Tumblr Oneshots [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 09:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13994949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormDancer/pseuds/Fanforthefics
Summary: “You know he’s not my boyfriend, right?” Sidney asks.Tanger raises his eyebrows. “I know you think he’s not your boyfriend,”





	Seven Calls

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "college" for the SidGeno fluff fest. Reposted from tumblr, so not betaed. Don't know, don't own, entirely fictionalized versions with nothing to do with the actual people, etc. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“It’s fine, I’ll just pull an all-nighter.”

On the other side of the Skype call, Sid can see Geno pull a face. It’s the same face he’d pulled when they were sixteen and Geno was on his exchange year in Cole Harbor, even if Geno’s grown up in the last five years. His fond, exasperated concern is still the exact same. “Overworking yourself?”

“I’m pulling an all-nighter, it’s not overworking.” Sid looks over his computer screen to where Tanger’s sitting on his bed typing on his computer, his headphones in. “Right?”

Tanger pulls out one earbud. “Hm?”

“Pulling an all-nighter isn’t overworking.”

“I am not getting involved with your fight with your boyfriend,” Tanger says loftily. Just for that, Sid is definitely going to tell Catherine the next time Tanger does something especially stupid at one of their team nights out. “But also, you really should go to sleep.”

“What he say?” asks Geno, from the screen. “Tanger tell you that you overworking and need to get sleep?”

“Tanger said nothing,” Sid says, glaring at Tanger to emphasize it. Tanger’s headphones are back in, though, so it loses its emphasis. “And I need to finish this paper by tomorrow, so I have to pull an all-nighter.”

Geno makes a face, his brow drawing together. “I hang up now, then? You work soon—”

“No!” Sid yelps, and then can feel himself go red as Geno and Tanger both laugh at him. “I mean. No, it’s not like it’ll make a difference, and I want to hear about your day.”

Geno smiles at him then. There’s still that concern in his gaze, but no one smiles at Sid quite like Geno does, like he sees all his neuroses and weirdness and loves him for it, not despite it. Sid likes to think that Geno doesn’t smile at anyone else quite like he does at Sid, but he hasn’t seen Geno in person for about two years, so he can’t be sure about that. “Okay, Sid,” he says, gentle. Like Sid’s one of the animals he deals with at the clinic. “I tell you.”

When they finally hang up forty-five minutes later, Sid looks over his screen again at Tanger. “You know he’s not my boyfriend, right?” He asks. He’s been friends with Tanger for going on four years now, ever since basically the first day of college, has been living with him for one since Flower left, but he still wants to check. People sometimes don’t get that.

Tanger raises his eyebrows. “I know you think he’s not your boyfriend,” he replies, which is honestly less chirping than Sid expected, so he lets it go. People don’t get him and Geno, really. It’s understandable—in a lot of ways, Sid doesn’t get them either. No one would expect that Sid, whose focus on things other than hockey and school is admittedly sometimes shaky, would stay in touch with the exchange kid from his high school all through college; no one would expect that Geno, who’s outgoing and laid back and easy and everything Sid isn’t, would want to stay in touch with Sid. But they did, and now graduation is coming and there’s a world opening in front of Sid and all he knows is that Geno will still be there.

And maybe Sid would like to kiss him sometimes, when he’s getting worked up talking about an animal that came into the clinic that day or when he thinks about his family or just whenever. Geno’s on the other side of the world, and they’re best friends, and that’s enough.

///

“I’m not worried,” Sid says into his phone, on his way to class. His third to last class ever. Which he’s fine with.

“Sid.” Geno draws out the i.

“Geno,” Sid retorts. “I’m not.”

“You always worry,” Geno points out, which is probably fair but not what Sid needs to hear three weeks before graduation. “You fall apart if you not worry.”

“Worried,” Sid corrects absently. This is why they talk on the phone, so Geno doesn’t lose his English. “Or if I don’t worry. Which isn’t true. I’m fine. I know how to do exams, and then it’ll work out.”

“Yes, it will,” Geno agrees. “You get great job and be very rich and support me like I used to.”

Sid snorts. “Who says I’ll support you?”

“You support me,” Geno states, and Sid knows that he just doesn’t like any tense but the present, but it still settles in him, that Geno thinks that even now. Sid knows he’s not the easiest person; he tries to be a good friend and a good mentor to the underclassmen but he has a bad habit of leaning on his close friends too much and monopolizing them and forgetting that they need lives in return. It’s not why Flower had left, he knows, but sometimes he feels like it might have been. So it’s nice to hear Geno say that. “You best.”

“Geno.” Sid’s probably blushing, but he doesn’t really care.

“Sid,” Geno retorts. “Don’t worry. Interview go great, you get job.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Can,” Geno replies, all the same confidence that he’d used to brazen his way through his first months in Canada with barely any English. Sid had been in awe of it then, and he still is now. He’s not a coward himself, and he knows what he’s capable of, but Geno’s something else. “Don’t question, Sid. I always right.”

“What about—”

“Always,” Geno interrupts sternly, and Sid laughs.

“Fine. What about you? Is the management change at the clinic making you think of leaving?”

Geno’s quiet for a second. Sid stops smiling, and slows down so he’ll have more time to talk. “G? Is everything all right?”

“All good,” Geno replies immediately. It doesn’t sound like a lie, but Sid’s better at telling when he can see Geno’s face. His sometimes spotty English can cover for a lot over the phone. “Promise. Just trying to figure some things out.”

“If you need any help…”

“I ask,” Geno promises.

“Good.” Sid looks at his watch. “You should get back in, your break is over. And drink some coffee.”

“Yes, Sid,” Geno sighs, but Sid can hear the smile in it. “Don’t worry, I not operate without caffeine. I not hurt kitten.”

“All these night shifts, though…”

“All good,” Geno repeats. “I good. Have good class, talk to you tomorrow.”

“Talk to you tomorrow,” Sid agrees. “Text me when you get home.”

Geno huffs out a breath that sounds like a laugh. “What if I not? What if I mugged on streets of Moscow, what you do from Canada, Sid?”

“I’d figure something out,” Sid says, like he hasn’t maybe looked up a few emergency numbers in Moscow, just in case. He really does worry, with all the night shifts Geno takes at the emergency clinic.

“I know,” Geno says, and he sounds like he does. “Night, Sid.”

“Night G.” Sid hangs up. For a second, he looks at his lock screen—a picture of him and Geno and the team, when Geno last came to visit two years ago. Geno’s arm is slung around Sid’s shoulders, tugging him in close; Sid’s smiling at the camera but clearly a second away from breaking into laughter from something Geno’s muttering. Geno’s just grinning down at him, like the camera isn’t even there.

Sid puts his phone away. He has class to get to, then an interview to prep for.

///

“Can’t talk for long,” Geno warns, when Sid Skypes. “Very busy.”

“You’ve been busy a lot,” Sid says. He’s not pouting—Geno has a thriving social life in Moscow, that Sid hears about all the time; he shouldn’t have to put his life on hold for Sid. Geno’s just been busy a lot lately and Sid misses him. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, very okay, I say. Studying good?”

“Fine. Lots of it, you know.”

“I know,” Geno agrees, his Sid smile back on. He maybe gets a lot of Sid’s studying and exam crazy, because his are at different times and Sid doesn’t feel as bad dumping all of it on him instead of his friends here, who are busy on their own. “You okay? You make Tanger get you chocolate? He know you get grumpy if you not fed sugar.”

“I don’t,” Sid mutters, but given that he has a bag of mini-chocolate bars sitting next to his bed right now, all he can feel is fond that Geno knows him so well. “But. Yeah. I’m supplied.”

“Good. I try to get mama to bake you care package, but she say it not keep in mail, is better if I just—” He cuts himself off. It’s incredibly suspicious, and normally Sid would push on it, but he’s tired and he doesn’t want to waste his Geno time on whatever he’s up to. He’ll ask next time.

Geno hurries on anyway, his face a little flushed. “I, um. Why you call?” he asks. “Is middle of your library time.”

Sid swallows, wills his face to neutrality. “I got news.”

“News?” Geno leans in closer, then his eyes widen and his face splits into a massive grin that takes up his entire face. “You get it, Sid? You get job?”

“I got it!” Sid cheers, and over the screen Geno has his hands in the air, shaking them in victory. “I’m going to be working for Mario Lemeiux next year. I don’t even—I can’t believe—it’s surreal.”

“I tell you you get it,” Geno says, but he can barely even sound smug. “Sid! Is so great!”

“I know!” Sid’s laughing despite himself, despite the fact that he still has all his exams to go. He pushes it down enough that he can talk. “That’s all I wanted to say, you can go now. They just called me, though, and I had to call you right away.”

“Of course you call right away, I’m need to know first.” Geno’s still beaming. God, Sid wants to kiss him. “So proud of you.”

It means almost as much as hearing the job offer. “Thanks,” Sid says, and it doesn’t feel like enough, but he knows Geno gets it.

///

“Hey, Geno, it’s Sidney. It’s about eight thirty my time. I guess you’re busy—it is right at the start of your shift, I guess—so I hope I’m not disturbing you. Don’t worry about calling me back. I’m just about to go into my exam, and I wanted to hear your voice, I guess. You’ve always wished me luck before. I guess your voicemail message will have to do, even if I don’t understand any of it. I’ll call you once the exam is done, or you can call me back in a few hours if you have a chance. So, yeah. Bye.”

Sid hangs up, sets his phone down next to him on the desk. It’s not like he has to talk to Geno before every exam. Exams aren’t entirely like hockey, his routine isn’t quite so set. It just helps. To hear Geno. They’d done it every exam either one of them had taken since they were sixteen.

He sighs, and opens his notebook again. He can get some last minute reviewing done instead.

Still, he grabs the phone fast, when it starts to vibrate and the picture of Geno and Jeffery shows up on the screen.

“Sorry!” Geno pants out, the word already halfway out when Sid picks up. “I finishing something important, it go later than I thought. Is it too late?

Sid smiles, and lets out a long breath. Everything is settling in him. “No, it’s not too late.”

“Good. Not want to miss. Important.” He can hear a door closing on Geno’s end, then what sounds like him sitting down. “Now. You ready?”

“Yeah.” Sid thinks for a second of asking what had Geno so busy when he knew when Sid was going to call, but he has an exam to concentrate on. He’ll ask later.

///

“Sid! Your phone!”

Sid barely hears Phil when he calls across the room. “What about it?”

“Your boyfriend is calling.”

“Geno!” Sid says happily, maybe louder than he would have if he were more sober, and climbs over Horny to get off the couch and to his phone, which is on the table after Tanger had confiscated it because he was apparently checking scores too often and not drinking enough. “Not my boyfriend,” he adds, remembering that important detail only once he’s basically made it to his phone. He doesn’t have time to check for Phil’s reaction before he opens the phone. “Geno!”

“Hi, Sid. You drunk?”

“Very,” Sid agrees, because he doesn’t lie to Geno. “Isn’t it early there? Why are you awake?”

“I need to get lots done today. Very busy next few days.”

“Too busy to call?” Sid asks, and then flips off Tanger, who’s clutched his heart dramatically.

“Probably not. But want to talk to you just in case.” Geno pauses, then adds. “Like to talk to you first thing. Like waking up with you.”

Sid is too drunk to care if his face is doing something stupid. He’s finished with college, and he loves Geno, and Geno’s being cute. “I like waking up to your call too,” he admits. It doesn’t sound like a bid admission. Geno knows that. There’s not much Geno doesn’t know about Sid.

“Seriously?” Someone from the team says, and Sid scowls at all of them indiscriminately before wandering away into the hallway, where he can talk in peace.

“You at party?” Geno asks. “Should go have fun. Not want to interrupt.”

“I’d rather talk to you.” Alcohol’s always made Sid honest. “You’re my favorite.”

“You lucky I not tell Flower you said that,” Geno says, but he sounds weird. Choked.

“He knows,” Sid says cheerfully. Flower knows him almost as well as Geno does, he definitely knows that. “I wish you were here.”

He knows Geno’s laughing at him now, and doesn’t care. “You such a—what word, like, love lots?”

“Affectionate.”

“Yes, yes. You such affectionate drunk, Sid. Tell everyone you love them.”

“Not everyone,” Sid protests, even though sometimes, yeah, he gets like that. “Just you. And the team. And you, really.“

“Okay, Sid,” Geno laughs. “Go find Tanger, tell him I say not let you get hangover tomorrow.”

“I’m drinking water,” Sid retorts. He’s not stupid. “I just miss you. I’ve never had as much fun at a party as I did when you were here.”

Geno’s quiet, for a long minute. Sid waits. He doesn’t think he said anything wrong, but if he did, Geno will tell him. “I have fun at that party too. You so drunk, though. Just cuddle and not let go.”

“You were comfortable,” Sid agrees. “I don’t have anyone to cuddle now.”

“Go find Tanger,” Geno suggests. Sid thinks he’s smiling his Sid smile. He can almost hear it.

“Tanger has Catherine.” Sid sighs and leans back against the wall. “Why does Russia have to be so far away?”

“I complain right away,” Geno laughs. “Sid.”

“Yeah?”

“You know I…” He stops, the way he does when he’s rehearsing something to make sure he gets it right in English. “You know that I have fun at that party too? I liked you cuddling. I cuddled back.”

“I know,” Sid tells his phone. He wishes Geno were here.

“Good.” Geno’s voice is soft. “Just make sure.”

///

“Hey, it’s Sidney. I, um. It’s about 11:30 my time. I’m lining up to walk.” Sid looks around the green. It’s a sea of black robes and hats, and the other seniors on the team are clumped up nearby. Or, most of them. If Tanger’s actually late to his own graduation, Sid is going to kill him.

And Sid will deal with that, when he’s finished leaving this message. It’s so weird. It’s over. He’s going to be a college graduate. He has a job. He’s going to be an adult. He’s only freaking out a little bit. “I thought you might call this morning, or last night, but I know you’re busy, it’s fine. Not in a passive aggressive way, I know that sounded sort of passive aggressive, but I didn’t mean it. Sorry, I’m just. Shit, I’m graduating. It’s weird.” Sid shakes his head, feels the tassel flop. “Anyway, I’ve got family stuff after this, but I’ll call when I can. Taylor’s probably taping, she’ll send it to you. We can see if I look like less of a spaz than you did. I–”

“Will not.”

For a second, Sid thinks that the voice came from his phone, but he’s in the middle of leaving a message. It can’t be. He spins.

Geno’s standing there, tall enough he’s actually blocking the sun a little bit, grinning sheepish and pleased and proud. He’s—he’s  _there_.

“Geno?” Sid breathes.

“Hi, Sid.” Geno waves a little, which is ridiculously dorky. “Nice to see.”

“Geno, fuck!” Sid throws his arms around Geno, and Geno hugs him just as tight. He’s so warm and solid and he’s put on muscle since Sid saw him last and it’s so fucking good to see him. Sid doesn’t want to let go, and Geno’s holding him hard enough that Sid thinks he agrees.

But they have to separate for Sid to ask the questions he needs to. He keeps a hand on Geno’s arm, though. Just in case. Also, because he looks really good in his suit. “What the hell? Why are you here?”

“Want to see you graduate. Know for sure you look like more of spaz.” The mischievous glint in Geno’s eyes is totally different in person. Sid had forgotten that, somehow. “Tanger pick me up.”

Behind Geno, Tanger’s cracking up, but he also makes a heart out of his fingers to Sid. Sid grins back, mouths  _Thank you_. He loves Geno, but he loves his team too.

“And also, I, um.” Geno rocks back on his heels. “I sort of. Move here?”

SId freezes. “What?”

“I move to North America. To Pittsburgh.” Geno shoves a hand into his hair. He’s watching Sid with big, almost nervous eyes. “That why I so busy recently. Have to figure out job, visa. Not easy.”

“But…” It’s not computing. The sun is still shining, seniors are still milling about, and everything in Sid’s world has turned upside down. “Your family. Your job. Your friends. They’re all in Russia.”

“Yes. All in Russia. But you here.” Slowly, Geno reaches down, slides his hand up over Sid’s arms to cup his face. He tilts it up, so all Sid can see, can think, is Geno. Is  _finally_. Geno’s smiling his Sid smile. “Right?” he asks, and it’s a simple question, but Sid gets it. They always understand each other.

“Right,” Sid agrees, and he doesn’t know if he moves or Geno does but their lips meet in the middle.

///

“Wait for me to get home.”

“I can do! Will be fast.”

“Putting together IKEA furniture is never fast,” Sid scolds. He still remembers the great IKEA debacle of sophomore year. He ducks his head so he doesn’t meet the gaze of anyone else on the street, and tries to walk as fast as he can without upsetting the takeout he’s carrying. “Wait for me. I have a system.”

“Of course you do.” Geno is rolling his eyes, Sid knows. “I have system too. Is called, follow instructions.”

“I’ll let you have the last dumpling if you wait.”

He can hear Geno considering it, then he sighs. “Fine. You drive strong bargain.”

“Hard bargain,” Sid corrects. “This’ll make it go much easier, you’ll see.”

“Fast good,” Geno agrees. “Want bed put together soon.”

“Ready to sleep on a real bed again?”

“I ready to fuck you on real bed for five years,” Geno replies flatly, and Sid chokes. “So fast good.”

“I’ll be home soon.”

“Good.” He can almost hear Geno’s smile. “I waiting.”

**Author's Note:**

> Liked it? Want to talk about it? Comment or come chat on [ tumblr!](http://fanforthefics.tumblr.com/)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Seven Calls](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17554604) by [momopods (momotastic)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/momotastic/pseuds/momopods)




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